This is a picture of Manchester City lifting the premier league trophy. They won it on Sunday evening in front of their home croud having overcome West Ham in the last game of the season.

This uplifting image shows the captain and seemingly all around nice guy Vincent Kompany celebrating with the rest of the squad.

In case there was any doubt in the results of the 38 games of the Premier League season having been completed, or that Manchester City finished the season on top of the league; here is an image of the final table.

Sorry Liverpool fans, but that's the table, there's no getting around it.

Sorry also to Manchester Utd fans, I cropped the image extra large to include you in the fun.

Unfortunately, in this digital age, someone seems to have forgotten to tell BetButler that Manchester City won the league, as this account statement from today is showing.

That's a bet on Manchester City to win the league. Placed 7 May before the City game at against Aston Villa had kicked off.

Every bookmaker settled their title bets within seconds of the result being confirmed, but not BetButler, they're waiting for something.

Is there an appeal about the result of the league we don't know about? Hope it doesn't involve a full 38 game re-run of the season, that'll cause an awfull lot of congestion next season.

The owner of the account has given BetButler 48 hours to get it sorted. That's overly generous in my opinion, it should've been completed 48 seconds after the final whistles blew on Sunday night.

UPDATE: 17 May 2014

Just had confirmation that the bet was settled in full at the stated odds Friday 16 May. They didn't contest the odds, or make any attempt to change them, simply took 5 days to settle on a title winning bet. What ever your own experiences with this company, you can't deny the service people have received, and the seemingly amateur nature of the operation. As an aside, there are still plenty of people with money left in there, with no eta on when they'll get it back.

The mind boggles.

BetButler, the odds comparison and brokerage site, have gone crazy again.

BetButler is a site that doesn't like winners, as confirmed when they emailed any customers that had 'consistantly won' and told them they're going to be paying more for the service (or lack there of) that BetButler provides.

BetButler is a site that still hasn't settled bets on Manchester City to win the league from yesterday. Now a day doesn't sound much (in deed it isn't compared to how long it takes to receive a withdrawal), but in online betting that's like a geological time frame. Every single other bookmaker had that settled in moments, the same as they had for every other match from the day.

BetButler is a site that has delayed withdrawals to customers for months, made customers jump through hoops, and then lied to them.

Now they may have hit rock bottom, BetButler have got into bed with a tipster service. Regardless of whether the reputation of this tipster service is good or not (it actually is), we have a bookmaker recommending a tipster service. Clearly the best way to profit from these bets will be through using a BetButler account, but if you win then that account will be limited!

I seriously think this is the death throws of a company that lost its way, didn't have the guts to ask for help, pissed off it's customer base, and now seems to be selling it's database to tipster services. My opinion is worth nothing, but I'll not be betting there again any time soon, and wouldn't recommend anyone I know to either. Not sure what I'll write about when they're gone though, they practically write this blog for me!

Roy Hodgson will announce the England World Cup squad at 14:00 today. The premier league season may have finished, but there's plenty more excitement (and betting) to be done over this summer.

For what it's worth (probably not much), this is the squad I'd like to see.

Hart
Forster
Foster

Baines
Cahill
Jagielka
Johnson
Shaw
Jones
Flanagan
Terry (I know, I know. I don't like the man, but he's been a beast this season and on merit would be in the squad)

Gerrard
The Ox
Henderson
Lallana
Sterling
Barkley
Milner
Wishere

Rooney
Sturridge
Carroll
Wickham

Connor Wickham?! That's right, got to have a wild card and he could be it. Chuck him on and see what happens.

Only my thoughts and predictions, everyone becomes an England manager today though!

Did also get me thinking about what sort of squad different managers would take. If Mourinho were manager, for instance, then Terry would definitely be in. Makes you hope that Hodgson shows some balls and puts a squad that's going to grow and develop together and really challenge at the Euros in two years.

Edit: My predictions weren't that far off the mark, but at the same time where there was any doubt about who would be coming, I got it wrong!

The full England World Cup Squad is shown below. I'm not one to gripe along team lines, and maybe it's because I haven't seen enough of him play this year, but is Welbeck really worth a spot on the plane? No idea how they'll line up for the first game, but I can't bloody wait for it!

At the start of the season I picked Chelsea to win the league. There's no post to back it up, but given I was wrong that doesn't seem to be a problem! The Mourinho factor seemed to me to be enough to overtake Utd and Manchester City who looked a bit at sea at times towards the end of last season. Didn't really give Arsenal a chance, even after the signing of Ozil, but was genuinely delighted when they were heading the league. The thing about being neutral to most of what's happening at the top of the league is that you can take a step back and look objectively at the teams and the individuals.

Yaya Toure is a force of nature. It makes me sad Aguero couldn't stay fit for the season. Dzeko is really underrated.

I'd hate to play against Suarez. Sturridge is proof that you shouldn't think about your goal celebrations. Henderson was a revelation.

Hazzard covered the cracks. Demba Ba was worth more starts than Torres. Terry would be going to Brazil if he wasn't such a tool.

But am I supprised that over the course of the season Manchester City have shown themselves to be the best team in the league? Not at all. They've always had a great squad, chock full of quality, and when it comes good they are unbelievablely good. Now the neutral in me would've rathered Liverpool won, there's something about a 'we're going to score one more than you' attitude that I really enjoy, but the league doesn't lie and City deserve it over the course of the season.

As for next season, well that's a difficult thing to judge at the moment. Liverpool will almost certainly struggle with Champions League football as it'll stretch their thin squad. They'll probably get a horror draw  as well having been outside Europe for long enough to lose their seeding. Utd will come back stronger, but they need to build a new squad and repair the mentality across more than one transfer window so they'll be up there but go the distance.

Realistically, Arsenal will do what they do and finish fourth, Chelsea and Manchester City will compete for the league. Anyone of Liverpool, Spurs, Utd and Everton could pick up the final champions league spot.

Manchester City are favourites 15/8 with BetFred

Chelsea are second favourites 12/5 with SkyBet

Man Utd and Liverpool are both

But what do I know, I thought Chelsea would win the league last season. I'm not a tipster though I'm a Matched Bettor. Which is much better.

In short Matched Betting does still work. It is possible to Beat the Bookies. I'm doing it after all. You can track my progress in my blog posts and thus far there's not been an unprofitable week. Looking back over the figures you might think it's not very profitable, but I did start with a very small float which has hampered my early progress.

People who started this many years ago will look back at a time where offers were more abundent, and money more free flowing, but if there's one thing I've learnt from the forums it's that there's always another new offer just around the corner. Bookmakers may come and go, offers may go in and out of favour, but there's always a way of making money from this game.

You might doubt Matched Betting is working, but it's probably (and no offence is meant here) that you don't understand it. It's quite a difficult concept to get across through words, pictures or even videos. Ideally you'll learn from someone sat next to you with a pen, paper and laptop. If that's simply not possible, then start by looking at my Matched Betting Basics guide, and the 10 Rules of Matched Betting. If that doesn't confuse you then there's a good chance you can work this out and get involved in Matched Betting.

Sure some of the terms and conditions may have tightened up over the years, but that just makes the people doing the Matched Betting even smarter. Where MSE and the GIOL forum may stop at Matched Betting, others plow into the slightly riskier but even more profitable Advantage Play betting. There are plenty of opportunities to make money, you just need to start. 

BetButler have decided it's time to gub their customers.

That's right, not content with making those same customers wait upwards of 8 weeks for a withdrawal, they've now emailed customers who 'consistantly win' to tell them that they'll need to pay higher fees for the service in future.

Not going to copy the whole thing out here, if you didn't get the email you can read about it on The Gambling TImes BetButler complaints board. There's over 31,000 hits on that complaint thread now. That's a lot in the world of gaming complaints, even the Canbet thread didn't get as many and when they went under it pissed off a lot of people.

How confident are you of betting with the BetButler now? Does it make your funds feel secure that they've been through refinancing, don't seem to know what their business model is, and have now seemingly been gubbed by the bookmakers themselves, and hence have to gub anyone that had the audacity to win?!

For the sake of balance it's worth noting that a lot of sites will gub you in the end if you keep winning consistantly. William Hill are the slowest of the highstreet bookmakers, but they'll get you all in the end unless you're smart with your bets and what you appear to be doing.

I love Eurovision, not going to lie. It's one of the biggest and best house party days of the year. Everyone brings a bottle of random shots (thinking cherry corkies, sourz or even some lambrini). Divide up the countries between all those present, every time their country gets in the top 5 points, they do a shot. It's a recipe for a messy night, especially if you get one of the favourites.

In terms of the betting, it's an odd event in that you can predict that some countries are going to get big points from their neighbours, and others are going to get squat, what with invading them or whatever. Having listened to most of the entrants, and even sat through the semi final, I feel in a strong position to predict that anyone could win, accept the United Kingom, their entry is just a little rubbish. Molly Smitten-Downes seems like a really nice young lady, but the song, and even it's title 'Children of the Universe', are just a set up for a fall for the poor thing.

If you haven't heard our entry then press play below, if you have then don't put yourself through it again, especially as you'll hear it again tomorrow during the competition (more than once if we actually win!). 

Sweden are the current Eurovision favourites at 11/4 with BetFred (the Scandinavians tend to vote for each other which gives them a head start!). Austria are certainly one to watch though, they've come in massively to become the second favourites at 7/2, again with BetFred. Netherlands, Armenia and the United Kingdom make up the rest of the top 5 and 888Sport have the best odds on them.

Final recommendation (I'm not going to tip anyone), get the subtitles on. Pure genius.

Afternoon all!

Another instalment of my blog as I continue my journey into the world of matched betting. A bit of a slow week in fact, and it's just one big bet taking up all my float. With the end of the football season rapidly approaching I’m looking to take advantage of some offers for the weekend games – (although my Skrill account is currently locked awaiting ID verification!). In more news, I’ve been gubbed at Seanie Mac, BragBet and Boyles(!), more details on that to follow next week! 

Friday
It’s the bank holiday weekend I have a night out at Fontwell races, I can’t pick a winner and lose every race, without the luxury of laying anything. I only bet small amounts though so £30 down – and entry and drinks all paid for as it is the pool team’s end of season boys night so probably not down at all on reflection! Although if I had been clever would have worked out picks and laid them all before I went!

I back and lay the £10 free bet from champions league offer at 888Sport on a nice little arb at the Punchestown festival. Really need to get more involved on that next year as missed price boosts everywhere. The horse of course loses, in fact I think it's a faller, but the odds are in my favour and I pocket £9.50 on an aggressive lay.

Day Profit: +£9.50

Saturday , Sunday, Monday
I play in a hockey festival which means I’m nowhere near a laptop for a couple of days so I set all I achieve is to move money about so I can open a Bet 365 account in the week.

Tuesday
I struggle with snooker withdrawal symptoms after watching the world champ for 3 weeks. The free bet from Seanie Mac comes in which I start to punt out using their limited stakes. In general struggling to get more than 20p on anything! I had written this money off so just punting it out seeing anything I get back as a bonus.

Day Profit Loss: £3.65

Wednesday
The big one (for me anyway!) I’ve structured my float so I can cover the massive Bet365 opening offer of a £200 matched bet. I stick in the first £200 and claim the bonus which is instantly credited to me a real touch. This means I can get it all on the one game, and I’ve picked a beauty. Find a small arb on the Sunderland West Brom game being a draw at both half time and full time (backed for £200 at 5.5, layed £185 at 5.3), and then also add in a secondary bet just on the draw. My float runs out on the 2nd £200 free bet so I underlay quite bit (£200 at 3.1 and layed £140 at 3.15). Sunderland and West Brom both need just a draw to relegate Norwich and live to see another day in the premier league, so it's an absolute given that this is what will happen. I’ll be around £400 up if it’s a draw all the way, or £300 if one team draws after being behind at half time. I head to the pub confident I’m going to be seeing nice pay day.

Well what do you know! The albatross strikes again! West Brom show no interest in the game and get a 2-0 beating. That leaves me £120 up, but it feels like a small loss. On the plus side all my money filters back into exchanges (Smarkets & Betfair) so no need to work through the Bet365 bonus wagering and it puts me in a good position to attack a new set of offers.

As an aside I get £2 free at Paddy Power and 888Sport to play on the games, I win with neither

Day P/L = +£119

Thursday
I spend some of the morning placing the rapidly reducing stake Seanie Mac bets. It has become a small obsession and point of principal to get this completed just to come away with something. I get a ticket for Brighton’s playoff semi final, I don’t tell the large contingent of Seagull fans I’m sat with about the bad luck charm sitting in the middle of the stand with them, and sneak out the stadium at full time having seen them lose 2-1

Day P/L = +£3.00 (Seanie Mac)

Week Profit Loss: +£136

Sorry there is not lot of gambling content this week! I’ve come out over £130 up though and for me the movement of funds to cover Bet 365 meant I had to pretty much use every spare penny of float in the exchanges

I find the Bet365 site easy to use and navigate and also they seem to have some good offers, definitely an account to be careful with and try to look after. They have a new customer £50 free mobile bet as well which is good news and will be done next week. 188 still needs a couple more bets to get my free bet back too. 

I have a proper look over the Vernons site this week that I opened last week I’m not overly impressed with it to be honest not a lot going on offer wise and their odds are pretty tight so lack of arbbing opportunities

A miracle.

It will give me no pleasure to see Norwich go down. I have no real affinity with the club, but I like the city and over the years I've loved some of their players. Ruel Fox, Jerry Goss, Chris Sutton, Craig Bellamy, Dean Ashton............and who couldn't love Delia's rousing speach from a few years ago.

They seemed to be a club that although they'd had issues financially, had got themselves on an even keel, promoted youth and had a nice manager in Houghton.

Unfortunately they are now all but down. But what does 'all but down' mean to Norwich? It means they'd need to break all sorts of records on the final day of the season to stay up, and it's not going to happen.

Norwich have a goal difference of -32, and are the league's lowest scorers with just 28 goals all season. They host Arsenal on the final day. Although Arsenal will have nothing to play for, and no one will want to get injured before the FA Cup final, they'll probably have enough to see off Norwich.

West Brom, the only team that could go down in their stead, have goal difference of -15 and play Stoke at home in their last game. So West Brom have to lose, and Norwich need to win. Within those results there also needs to be a swing of 17 goals in favour of Norwich.

Given the record winning margin for a Premier League game is Manchester Uniteds 9-0 against Ipswich town back in 2005, it does not bode well for the Canaries.

Basically Norwich are down. Miracles do happen, but no one would believe this one. I'm going to miss them, and their fans in the Premier League next season, but I fancy I'll be one of the few.

You might not have seen the match last night, it was after all a match with little riding on it. The last home game of Manchester Utd's season is, however, notable for the debut of one James Wilson.

James Wilson has joined a very select group of players that have scored a brace on their Premier League debut. Manchester City's  Sergio Aguero did it, as did Egyptian 'legend' Mido. Given the career one of those players has had compared to the other, I hope for James's sake he's more of an Aguero than a Mido!

Of course we can't tell much from one match, but to do what he did shows a temprament that will hold him in good stead, and by scoring two on debut he's bought himself a few more opportunities to prove himself in the long term as well. That's the advantage he now has, had he started a few games without scoring, he might have found himself farmed out to a lower league team on loan. Now, even if he doesn't break straight into the Utd first team, he's got a much better chance of turning out for a mid table premier league team on loan.

That might be considered a double edged sword as he'll be developing in the public eye, but if you're good enough, you're old enough. All we can say now is that on debut he managed to score more goals for the season than Kagawa, Nani, Fellaini and Cleverley combined (poor old Fellaini did have a hand in both though!).

Moyes was given plaudits for giving Adnan Januzaj his opportunities, in fact it might be one of the few ways he'll be remembered positively by the Old Trafford faithful. Ryan Giggs may be remembered as a legend as a player, but also the man who took a punt on an 18 year old who took that opportunity with both hands.

As a little aside, did you know Ryan Giggs is actually Ryan Wilson? He does get about a bit, but it doesn't appear to be a relation!